14 DAY TRIAL // Not such a long time after the web was hit by rumors that Galaxy was working on a dual-GTS 250 graphics card, another report, this time from o.v.e.r.clockers.at, has ASUS allegedly planning on putting together a dual-GPU card of its own, albeit AMD-based. The rumors make the rather ambitious claim that ASUS is devising a card based on two Cypress GPUs, identical to those used in the Radeon HD 5870.
So far, it is unclear by how much this product will differ from the Radeon HD 5970. This graphics adapter already uses a full-featured dual-Cypress design, with the only difference being the lower clock speed of 725/1000MHz, compared to the Radeon HD 5870 which has the same GPU running at 850/1200MHz. ASUS will likely use stronger VRM circuitry in order to enable its card to reach the higher clocks, as electrical limitations are the only likely reasons behind the lower speeds of the HD 5970.
The rumors have, as of yet, not been confirmed so there is no way of knowing for certain if ASUS is really releasing such a card in the near or distant future. In fact, in a recent conference call, Advanced Micro Devices stated that custom-design accelerators similar to the HD 5970 were unlikely to debut before the second quarter of the ongoing year. However, this does not at all imply that there is any type of restriction in place.
ASUS previously developed a dual-GPU card known as the Mars. This product was based on two GeForce GTX 285 graphics processing units and even outpaced NVIDIA's own dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295. The dual-HD 5870 will be codenamed Ares, likely after the Greek God of War. Of course, there is no way of knowing how such a product would be different from an overclocked Radeon HD 5970, considering that it uses the same dual-Cypress concept. The graphics card will also likely be very expensive, even more so than the 5970, and its power consumption will obviously be significant.